The mathematics of labor is not all that difficult to calculate, for when labor is cheaper in wage price somewhere else, and when the work so being done with that labor meets the standards so set out, then pretty clearly that specific labor is a cost saving for that company which has engaged that labor. America has morphed from a nation that use to manufacture goods to sell domestically as well as to then export them, to preferring instead to a very large extent, to outsource the manufacture of said goods, primarily because by doing so, the labor price is often substantially cheaper, along with the overall labor conditions and environmental laws typically being quite favorable for that American company, especially in comparison if such was predominately domestically manufactured.
So then, America has done the obvious, which is that they have discovered that overseas labor in developing nations, with a “rule of law” that bends to those with power, influence, and money, thereby allows them to manufacture goods at a price point that more easily permits them to turn a very nice profit. The fact that America often “lords” it over these other nations and the inhabitants of such, essentially exploiting them for the benefit of American enterprise is something that those corporations pretty much prefer to believe does not actually exist. Perhaps, they somewhat assuage their guilt, if they have any, by repeating the mantra that their employment of overseas labor has helped the impoverished in those lands by providing them with steady income and a way and means to escape the drudgery of agricultural work or something of a similar nature.
In an era in which “free trade” has become normalized, and in which, monies so made overseas by these multinational corporations and the profit, so of, can often be moved about in a manner in which taxation is reduced considerably, avoided, or evaded, this thus makes it clear sailing for these corporations to conduct as much business as conceivable overseas, because the lure of that profit is far too great to prudently ignore. So too, when the labor and environmental standards of America, can be circumvented by utilizing another nation, as their manufacturing base, in which, therefore that corporation need only meet what is so demanded by that foreign nation, which often works hand-in-glove with that which provides employment for them, then never has times been better than now for those American multinational corporations.
Should it, though, always be a race to the labor wage bottom? Doesn’t a given American corporation have first an obligation to the very nation, that provided the infrastructure, the education, the knowhow, and the finance to first do right by their mother nation, by doing their good part to see that the people of this nation, are provided with the ways and means of fair opportunity along with a living wage? Instead, what we have is a bifurcated America, in which the elite has all of the money, all of the wealth, and all of the benefits; leaving ever further behind a significant swath of domestic citizens who have been cheated out of prosperity, by those that love money, above all.